Don Norman on Smart Machines

In a New York Times article last month, Don Norman, one of my heroes, said that intelligent devices should work without human intervention and should behave predictably. He gave the examples of a clothes dryer that stops when the clothes are dry and a tea kettle that whistles when the water boils. “But we are moving toward intelligent machines that still require human supervision and correction, and that is where the danger lies — machines that fight with us over how to do things.”

“Badly designed so-called intelligent technology makes us feel out of control, helpless. No wonder we hate it.” Don went on to say, “Our frustrations with machines are not going to be solved with better machines.”

I just struggled with a not very smart but quite powerful machine, a furnace. The conclusion was a happy one but it required the assistance of a specialist. In the interval between the detection and fixing of the problem, I certainly felt helpless, as Don said.

I wonder if the more intelligence a device has, the more helpless a person feels when the device is not behaving predictably – or as desired, which isn’t necessarily the same thing. And I wonder if the dislike one has also grows with intelligence since expectations increase.